The invention relates to rivets having cylindrical shanks and a head with portions projecting perpendicularly to its longitudinal axis beyond the periphery of the shank.
Rivets with enlarged heads have been known and commonly used in the art for decades. In many cases, the rivets are placed by hand into aligned holes in the two components or sheets to be riveted to each other, but this insertion is time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Because much use is made of riveting in some areas of manufacturing requiring rapid, repetitive riveting operations, such as aircraft construction, the manual insertion of rivets by hand is not practical. However, automatic delivery and placement of rivets against the workpieces is generally problem-free only if the rivets do not have a radially enlarged head, i.e., bolt-shaped rivets. The rivets are not usable or desirable in some applications, and generally require upsetting of both ends of the rivet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rivet with an enlarged head which is adapted to rapid automatic placement in position against the workpieces suitable for an automatic riveting process.
It is also an object to provide such a rivet having a shank which may be utilized to cut through the assembled workpieces to avoid the necessity for predrilling or otherwise forming holes in the workpieces.
Another object is to provide such a rivet which provides means for interlocking the workpieces being assembled by causing metal movement into a recess along its length rather than upsetting of the free end of the shank.
A further object is to provide a feed member cooperating with such rivets to guide and deliver the rivets in proper orientation to the riveting station.